Azerbaijan

In a post-industrial era where cities across the globe have taken an entrepreneurial approach to urban territorial management, mega-events have become a prominent part of urban policies (Harvey, 1989). The Olympics and the Formula 1 World Championship are examples of internationally-significant mega-events, typically with an abundance of visitors and global media audiences of billions.

From the outset, Germany’s chairmanship of the OSCE, in 2016, promised to be fraught with sizable challenges. One of these challenges came from the recent developments in the South Caucasus, which demonstrated with renewed force that national boundaries in the post-Soviet space, and thus the security situation, are still far from stable.

Azerbaijan is a key actor in the South Caucasus, reshaping the borders of influence of regional and extra-regional powers. So far its leading role has been defined by the availability of hydrocarbon resources, which the country has successfully used to manoeuvre between the clashing interests of powerful players and thus managed not to become excessively dependent on any of them.

A sad anniversary is upon us. The 29th of June marks exactly one year since the declaration of the global Caliphate - the Islamic State (previously the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

Azerbaijani human rights activist Leyla Yunus has been arrested in Baku. The regime’s savage crackdown on press and opposition started long before the presidential elections of 2013.

The EU-Azerbaijan ENP agreement signed in 2006 was met with substantial enthusiasm from society and was followed by official statements on the commitment to integration in the EU.

Azerbaijan’s capital Baku was ready when the Eurovision Song Contest took place there at the end of May 2012. All guests were welcome. “Baku was very open and liberal,” Stern.de journalist Jens Maier describes the atmosphere. “A gay club was opened. I do not know of any cases in which problems arose or people felt threatened.” Two openly gay activists, Elham Bagirov and Kamran Rzayev, also remember the excitement of this occasion.

On 27 September 2011, the Heinrich Boell Foundation South Caucasus Regional Office organized the public debate in Baku. The topic of the discussion was: “Gender as an issue of academic discourse in Azerbaijan”.